Smart’s new concept is so hipster because roofs are for conformists

Smart’s new concept is so hipster because roofs are for conformists

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Mercedes-Benz’s mini-car brand has just revealed a Paris show car – the Smart Forease concept ls a chopped and roofless all-electric speedster…

The guff for the new Smart Forease concept coming to the Paris motor show next week is full of words like uncompromising, attitude, extroverted, unconventional, and of course, lifestyle.

It’s supposed to be an urbanite’s dream car, as long as you live in a city where it never rains. Ahem… See, there is no roof and the windscreen is chopped, so the Smart Forease is actually a bit of a speedster. For Paris, the show car has been painted in a metallic white colour with green accents, like every other electrified car, but don’t mention the conformism to Smart.

Of course it’s fully electric, since Smart plans to sell only all-electric vehicles in Europe from 2020, before the rest of the world markets follow soon after. The mini-car brand, owned by Mercedes-Benz, doesn’t reveal anything about the powertrain, but we can assume it’s a bunch of batteries and electric motors, probably stuff identical to the tech you get in the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive.

That means that if the lairy roofless Speedster does go into production, it could serve up around 80 horsepower and 160Nm of torque providing a range of around 160km. Zero to 100km/h comes up in roughly 11 seconds and the top speed is a leisurely 130km/h.

One of the highlights is a steering wheel where they remembered the three spokes but forgot to add the top bit. Smart says the Forease concept is designed to be extra maneuverable in cities, and if you take the ‘extra’ to heart and roll the thing over, don’t worry because they’ve thought to include a couple of roll-bars behind the seats to protect you from messing up your groomed beard.